Law of Knight
by Blue-Inked Frost
Summary: Yet another paladin Bhaalspawn. One shot.


_Law of Knight_

_Summary_: Yet another paladin Bhaalspawn. One shot.

_Note_: Portions of the creeds of Helm and Tyr are quoted from.

—

_Protect the young. Give care to the children._

The knight had found her, an infant abandoned; and when he found none other to take her raised her as a daughter, instructed her as a squire.

_Demonstrate excellence and purity of loyalty in your role as a guardian and protector_.

Oft her guardian had travelled upon his service, but leaving her safely behind with a caretaker, the priests at his temple taking her every day for instruction and learning; and later he gave her schedules himself for education and care.

_Be vigilant_.

It was a part of the creed of the patron of her guardian, and close to that of the one that later found her. She strove to live to the same standard as her guardian; to pray with as much frequence as he, to live in contemplation of justice as much as he, to give dedication to learn spear and sword and javelin as he.

_Be vigilant in your observations and anticipations so you may detect those who plan injustices before their actions threaten law and order._

It was that later creed that would find her, and she felt her guardian knight an example of it. When she faltered in her duties he laid no punishment upon her, for he never needed to do so. He saw with with the white light of his service behind his eyes, and in that light she knew her own black failings and repented.

_Keep a record of your own rulings, deeds, and decisions, for through this your errors can be corrected, your grasp on the laws of all lands will flourish, and your ability to identify lawbreakers will expand._

She read in her guardian's church of Helm and his precepts; and read of other good and noble deities also, such as those of the Triad. From there she came to the blind and one-handed god of justice, and it was his creed that spoke most to her heart. She wrote in the logbook that she kept in imitation of her guardian, at his encouragement so that following his absences he could read record of her deeds: _1 Mirtul. On this day I endeavoured to read more fully the book by Thessyr upon Tyr's Law, and I feel I see better the heart of the creed. I meditated upon it, and within my prayers envisioned the presence of the blind god, of the set of balanced scales that grants justice to all._

Her guardian and the priests who taught her encouraged her to examine other gods, to study as well with other temples where righteousness was promoted. The temple of Helm that she served and studied at each day knew those of Torm, Ilmater, Tyr, and Lathander within the city to be of good report, though they laid caution against frivolity among the Lathanderians.

_Care for your weapons so that they may perform their duties when called upon._

Her guardian had trained her in the requirements of keeping weapons before her first wooden practice-sword, and would allow her even to care for his own when she was old enough to be trusted to the task. A regret for her was that she did not grow tall or strong enough for the spear to be her chosen tool, as the weapon that he was most expert in. He gave her gold from his stipend to learn to use the shortsword from a Lathanderian master of the art; and also by those instructors she learned the speedy dart, the crossbow that for respect of her guardian she suspended study, and would never use it before him. She was small, and favoured a weapon of her size; but she spent as many hours of practice as her guardian, and her aim was ever true.

_Deliver vengeance to the guilty for those who cannot do it themselves._

When she was fourteen years of age she began attendance of all the services of the Tyrran church, though since they were at different times to Helm's church she was able to appear at both. The vision of Tyr's justice captured her. Her mother had abandoned her duty to a child; her guardian told of vileness of bandits and vicious, malevolent wizards and servants of dark gods in his quests; in the very church of Lathander she saw irregularities of behaviour tolerated, that friends of the priests who laughed with them were treated differently to commoners who were turned away from the church for a lack of coin. If justice ruled the land, vigilance such as her guardian's would be upheld for what it was.

_Reveal the truth._

At the Tyrran services the priests observed her, and spoke to her of their principles, even lending her tomes of their religion. In but a night she learned the words of the Creed of Tyr to be forever within her. As much as the temple of Helm was her home in its structure and vigilance, in this she gained another strong feeling of worship, within the austere walls pained with the dark blue of the god's justice.

_Stand, wait, and watch carefully._

Her guardian knew of her time within the Tyrran temple; and he understood, and spoke seriously to her that a calling to Tyr was a goal worthy. At some services he attended with her, and spoke to priests and paladins from that temple of her conduct and aims.

_Right the wrong._

Her guardian served Helm by his spear and his sword as a knight. All he had known to teach her was the same; and all she had wanted to learn from him likewise. Her life within their small house and the quiet contemplation of Helm's temple had given her the wish to walk like him in the service of the gods and to do justice. All her hours upon weapons, on prayers and on learning the treatment of wounds, had been to prepare for that path. She sought nothing else; when Lathanderian novices called her for pleasures she had gone only once, and felt that the raucousness and crudity of the tavern was not for her. Tyr's law called to her in dreams and prayer, and she would fight for laws that sought to give all a life such as hers.

_Punish the guilty_.

She became the squire of a Tyrran her guardian knew and praised; Sir Tavian. She was one of three squires to him, accompanying him on battles of the church against ogres and giants, learning skills from him and giving duty to care for his arms and horse. The knight taught her much, and she learned the battlefield in practice: the blood-soaked bodies of men and monsters and the stench of bowels ripped and rotting open. She was the first of the three squires to conquer her natural stomach, and to work to bandage the injured and slay those who caused the bloodshed. One of the other squires, Finnis, voiced after they had seen the body of a young girl that none who saw such things could fail to deal justice to those capable of such acts; and spoke only what lay in her own heart. Justice must be brought to the guilty.

_Seek justice through truth._

At near eighteen she was the second of their group of three to receive the full gifts of a paladin, after standing vigil in a shrine to Tyr and praying as was her custom when she could. She had seen in her guardian's eyes many times that pale light where the gods gave ability to see good and evil in others: and was prepared for it within her own. No paladin described the divine ability with precisely the same words as another, for it was beyond words, for different paladins displayed greater or lesser facility of interpretation; but for her Tyr aided her in clear vision. She saw the righteous standing of the priests in his temple, of her fellow squires and their noble aspirations, and of the knight she served. And among others she saw evil and corruption riddled through their minds like black worms.

_Find those who plan injustices._

When she was nineteen, her knight died in battle. And in the end it was a needless battle, for a Lord called Phandolan—the name so close to her guardian, the man so opposite in character—unlawfully and maliciously broke treaty, and the knights fought upon his side to defend people from what his actions had provoked. She only saw the man a tenday after the battle was done: crawling with corruption. Her actions had protected innocents of her homeland, but if not for malicious profit-seeking it should never had come. She was knighted for her deeds in the eyes of both her Lord Tyr and his church, but such a cost ought never to have been paid.

_Meet guilt with justice._

Two tendays after the commencement of his trial Lord Phandolan was free. He was evil, corrupt and in command of innocent men. She prayed to Tyr; in the sight that he granted she knew well that her god allowed her to see Phandolan's evil. There was no mistake as to his actions regardless of the bribery and lawbreaking that set him free. Nor would he agree formally to a trial by combat.

She learned his ways and his paths, and she found a way where they would have opportunity to duel, where he went by himself to visit a woman and use her in sinful acts. She bore her shortswords, and a weapon spare for him: cornered and challenged him, alone. Trial by combat was at the will of the gods. Phandolan fought well enough, but Tyr lent her blades victory and gave the justice denied.

_Rank and wealth place no man above the law._

To slay goblins and giants and ogres was noble work in defence of innocents. But there were other knights who were mightier than her in that purpose, and so many of the worst evils were committed by humans who believed purple garments and golden necklaces could protect against retribution. Tyr's justice gave her the ability to see those evils for what they were. The day after her duel to slay Phandolan she resigned from her order to become knight errant, and traded heavy mail for softer, quieter leather.

_Tyr's justice weights all in even scales._

She had found a gift for moving silently and swiftly through low light. A gift for striking speedily that had always been her most prized skill. A gift for methodical discovery, noting careful traces of evidence and slowly finding evidence of guilt, of location, as if piecing together torn fragments from a book by dint of great effort. She had less talent for talking to people, for finding the information she needed in conversation; but with Tyr behind her eyes she could see truth or falsehood.

_Purge the evil._

There were degrees of corruption among men. The white light that blazed within her skull showed her small, poor men who were only cowards who did nothing to halt evil; unprincipled liars who were callous and yet not wholly malicious; beaten women in such misery they only attempted to survive. What Tyr's justice drove her to were those who caused such evils. Slaves smuggled underground to the city and forced to vile arenas for the amusement of nobles. Women bought and drugged and chained to beds. Wizards considered noble by day used human bodies in inhuman experiments by night. Men purchased child slaves. Tyr showed her the truth of whose lives must be forfeit.

She saw those richly-dressed men with the greatest black corruption pulsing through their forms in Tyr's true sight, and she followed them to bring them the justice he willed and they earned.

_Gather evidence of those who threaten law and order._

She followed the trails of corruption to where the most evil lay. Slavers. Smugglers. Murderers. She noted and understood their means and ways, their secrets and their refuges. When it was warranted she used a recipe for paralysis upon her darts; brought the evildoer to unconsciousness, and left detailed evidences of their crimes with them for guards and all the public to know. She filed through shackles of prisoners and left them with gold from their masters to free them to speak of the evils committed against them. And she herself went silent, unknown, and for that reason became by gradual degrees a force of fear for those who thought themselves above the law.

_Justice is an eye for an eye. Show mercy for complete justice is beyond any mortal, but know that mercy is never served by the death of innocents._

Not all had her knowledge through Tyr of the corruption of evil in men. The wealthy at times evaded justice no matter the evidence she mustered and sent to magistrates. She found and sought to uproot corruption among guard captains and judges also, where it was worst; but it was not enough for some of the powerful evildoers. By Tyr's law their lives were forfeit.

She made it so in the night.

_Show respect to your family and to those who have earned authority._

She returned to her home for a brief time, to meet with her guardian once more. He had ever cared more for service to the gods than worldly rank: and he understood her purpose fully. Awkwardly, for he had never often touched her, he embraced her as a father.

"I am proud that you are a paladin of Lord Tyr," he said, his white stare meeting her own unflinchingly, twinned alike in their dedication to righteousness. "After the evil that I have seen... I think it right and just to follow our sight. To end even one evildoer before he murders others."

She had heard whispers here of an incident they called The Massacre of Denisova within the last year, and that her guardian had been one of few to return from it.

"For what other purpose are we granted the sight? For what reason does corruption show in a person but by evil acts?" he said.

"I have brought justice to those who would escape otherwise," she replied, and in approval he rested a gauntleted hand upon her shoulder.

"You are faithful," he said. "When you were young I feared something, something like a taint in you...but you have always been dutiful and laboured long. No father could have asked for a better ward."

"A taint?" she asked, having few memories of her infancy, not even recalling the name of the nurse her guardian had paid to look after her.

"Your caretakers abandoned a child," her guardian said simply. "I found no trace of them, but saw signs that briefly made me fear they had influenced you with their evil. But as you grew under my roof you quickly changed to the good. Objects may be tainted by their usage for evil purposes; people under the influence of evil cannot expect to remain pure." She agreed with that; in her holy sight she had perceived traces of weapons used by assassins, that evil forces could leave marks upon objects as well as people. But her guardian had never spoken to her of this before...

"It is nothing," he said, still somewhat awkwardly. "I am proud of you."

"You spared me from being raised by such corruption," she replied. She was grateful indeed that Helm and Tyr both had brought this service to them, and they parted their ways as paladins of resolve.

_Live according to your needs as a servant of justice; pay unto your king what is rightfully his, and pay as great a tithe as possible unto those in need of genuine aid. _

Finnis wed his once-fellow squire, Lady Augenia, and she attended their wedding as a plain-clad guest unobtrusive in the back. Bride and groom shared her paladinhood, shared a history of battles fought at each other's side. Her sight showed them good and noble in their commitment, and as two nobles amidst other nobles of their families. Idle conversation was not among her preferred activities; but Tyr must have guided her attendance, for among their wedding guests were humans she saw and knew to be evil. One she already sought to bring to justice, but two she had not known. She learned their names and added to her list of those she must pursue. There was no need to inform Finnis or Augenia of the evil that lurked in their distant relatives and acquaintances, and in any case they would soon depart for a mission against ogres.

She returned to the simple grey room concealed in one of the lesser alleyways of the city; austere and obscure, in great contrast to elaborate mansions of noble-born knights. Her guardian was himself well born, but forswore needless luxuries for simplicity that concentrated the mind and body, and that each spare coin should be devoted to care for the poor. She had considered herself what it was right and fair to use for maintenance from those she defeated or executed for the sake of Tyr's justice, when it was lawful that their ill-gotten gains should belong to victims and the city itself; she took only what she needed for her lodging difficult to find by prying eyes, for the upkeep of her weapons and the substances upon her darts and crossbow bolts.

She drew her swords and practised for five hours measured by the city bells, praying and meditating in her mind that Tyr's sight would direct her to those who must be ended.

_Deliver vengeance. Deliver vengeance._

The note reached her at the temple of Tyr, and yet there was nothing that she could do. Her guardian lay murdered. A group of evil adventurers within his city, she read, numb in misery. They killed him; they outnumbered him. And shortly afterwards had seemed to disappear from the face of the earth.

She did not weep in the temple, though she knelt upon the altarstone for the night. She felt her blood drained from her head, her skin turned to withering paper, her chest made heavy by a granite stone that would never rise from it. She prayed that her guardian was in Helm's holy realm; she knew that he must have died upon his chosen course as a paladin. She almost prayed that, somehow, he would still be within the world. But it was self-indulgent and cruel to wish the peaceful dead back. It was a sin to suppose that some error had been made. All her life long and before that the life of Phandalyn Albaier had belonged to Helm. The Great Guard must now guard him.

In her emptiness she could not quite believe it, but she knew it to be true. In time she would accept it.

_Always be true and just in your actions._

Her mission was left to her to follow, and she continued it. Evil never slept. She had time for nothing that did not contribute to her tasks. She held to a schedule of practice and contemplation to keep herself to the peak needed, and that quiet order amidst all her activities satisfied her. In rumour she was a sum of at least ten knights who who worked in darkness. She gathered her understandings of the evildoers of the city in meetings and locations and armsmen, searched in black nights that could never hide them from those who saw good and evil, and repaid them with all efficiency in the coin of justice.

_In the name of Tyr my sight leads me to evildoers. I find and punish those who threaten law and order._

The man turned and fled into the narrow street, over the wet puddles that grew in the mud like ink glistening in the clouded night, his robes flying freely behind his back. His behaviour was as she had planned and expected. She reached unhurriedly for a dart from her belt, and threw.

The man fell like a rotting log, his face slipping into the damp sewage-soaked mud. At this time there was none who could come to aid him. Usually the truly evil employed servants for coin rather than relied upon comrades, and she had already dealt with his allies.

The paralytic agent upon the dart had done its work. The man gasped and wheezed almost silently, and she saw the evil that lay upon him. She walked to where he lay and slid the blade of her sword efficiently into his neck, carving the spine so that he no longer moved.

The voice spoke within her in commendation.

_VERY WELL DONE, MY CHILD._

—

_A/N_: Phandalyn's a knight of Helm in a tavern in Baldur's Gate who will attack anyone in your party who is evil.

—


End file.
